


What You Could Gain From It

by tacewrites



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, and everyone else really, guess who has feelings for haruhi, its kyoya, set after the beach episode (ep. 8)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 15:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10721775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tacewrites/pseuds/tacewrites
Summary: As a general rule, Kyoya doesn't waste time on anything or anyone that won't benefit him in the long run. Haruhi is the only exception.





	What You Could Gain From It

**Author's Note:**

> This is the result of me watching Ouran for the umpteenth time and having all sorts of feelings about it. I'm a huge believer in the fact that literally all the hosts are in love with Haruhi (I don't blame them, I am too), and Kyoya is no exception. I could write essays about it.  
> Anyway, this is the first time I have ever written fanfiction, but I tried my best and I had fun doing it. Hope you like reading it!

_You won’t do it Kyoya. I know, because you wouldn’t gain anything from it._

Those words were often replayed in Kyoya’s mind. They were especially present today, for some absurd reason. It was a particularly off day for the host club, as no girls were present and the hosts were lounging about, unwilling to go home quite yet for one reason or another. Kyoya stood and furiously scribbled away in his notebook to give off the impression that his excuse was work, but really, he was just watching. Watching the door for late arriving guests. Watching Honey eat his weight in cake. Watching Hikaru and Kaoru grinning slyly as they stood most likely scheming while crowding-

_You wouldn’t gain anything from it_. Haruhi was being poked and prodded by the twins, a pastime the latter seemed to love engaging in, while the former simply put up with it with a patience Kyoya could not understand. The twins would most likely claim that this game they played was simply to get a rise out of their own personal toy, but observation over time told Kyoya it was more than that. There was too much joy, too much admiration, too much fondness in the eyes of the two red headed boys for the excuse that it was only a past time to be true.

Kyoya continued to watch the trio. He couldn’t hear the conversation, but something Kaoru said must have been especially funny, as Hikaru began to erupt in laughter. Both boys, distracted for a moment by the hilarity of the joke, loosened their grip on Haruhi, who looked incredibly relieved. She looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath, apparently reveling in the newfound but most likely short lived freedom she had been granted. After a moment of studying the ceiling, she once again looked forward and her gaze immediately fell to him.

His hand stopped its scribbling immediately, startled by the directness of her big, chocolate colored eyes gazing so suddenly into his own. Realizing she had his attention, she nodded her head in the direction of the twins directly behind her, shook her head slightly, and shrugged in a _what can you do?_ sort of way. Regaining his wits about him, Kyoya responded with a sly half grin and a one handed shrug that he meant to mean _better you than me_. Haruhi good naturedly rolled her eyes, and then smiled widely back, causing something to tug at Kyoya’s heart.

Nothing to be gained, indeed. The moment the two had shared ended as Hikaru and Kaoru began to grab and prod at their most precious toy once more, and Kyoya was left to ponder the truthfulness of the statement that had been plaguing his mind all day.

Honestly, the scene at the beach house had not been his proudest moment, but he had felt that Haruhi needed to be taught to avoid the dangerous situations she seemed so fond of putting herself in. He had played the bad guy, but Haruhi, with her incredible perceptiveness, had called his bluff. When he had left her in the room with Tamaki a few minutes later, her words, the words that had been replayed periodically in his head ever since then, intrigued him. She had been right in that it would not have gained him anything if he had forced himself on her. He wasn’t a monster, he wouldn’t have done it anyway even if it would have. But there was the implication that, given a situation that was a lot less inappropriate and much more consensual, that there would be nothing in it for Kyoya, who did nothing unless it gained him something in return.

That was the intriguing part. True, Haruhi was a commoner. She had no wealth, no high social standing, no connections that could benefit him in any way if Kyoya were to be with her.

But Haruhi was kind. She was loyal, bold, and hard working. She was incredibly perceptive, and had everyone pegged, including him, which was disconcerting. It was hard to be the mysterious puppet master when someone could just look at you _and know_. He thought back to the moment before when she had purposefully looked his way. Those eyes were, if he was being truly honest, stunning. They held a wisdom behind them that not many people he had ever met possessed. On some occasions, when just the two of them would have a conversation and her sole focus was on him, he caught himself trying to prolong the conversation, if only that he would have an excuse to continue having a reason to stare into those deep brown eyes.

Conversations weren’t the only thing Kyoya tried to extend. He had, on occasion, been known to increase the number of customers that Haruhi needed to meet with in order to pay back the host club for the damages she had done to their vase. He always had a good reason, of course. A broken tea set here, a shattered plate there. Worth a few thousand each. He excused his actions with the thought that he was only doing this for Tamaki, who he knew would be secretly heartbroken if Haruhi were to leave the host club for good. He couldn’t always use this excuse, though. Once, when Haruhi’s guest count had increased dramatically in a single week, Kyoya added another thousand when she left a tiny ink spot on the music room couch with her pen. When she argued about how unfair it was, he simply informed her that the couch was a precious heirloom and worth a lot more than that. In reality, he had no idea where the couch was from. It was most likely just a couch. He had felt a little guilty, but he was the shadow king, after all, and was only doing as shadow kings do.

Still, he was aware of how ridiculous it all was. He knew that he had no reason to want her attention or savor it so much when he had it. But he would grudgingly admit to himself that he did sometimes. He wasn’t sure why it was that crazy in Haruhi’s mind. She was cute. So were other girls though, he supposed, having never really paid attention.

These thoughts continued to swim around in his mind, until a few minutes later when he faintly heard footsteps approaching. He was pulled from his musings by a voice in front of him. “Thanks a lot for coming to my rescue, Kyoya.”

Looking over his book, Kyoya noted the playful smirk on Haruhi’s face. “It seemed like you had it under control,” he replied with amusement. “You were able to get away alright, it seems.”

“I threatened not to study with them next week if they didn’t let me go.”

“What a disaster that would be for them.”

“Apparently so.” Haruhi turned back around and waved at the twins, who saluted her in return, laughing.

Kyoya, assuming that the wave meant she would be leaving, once again felt the need to get her to stay. He quickly thought up a new line of conversation. “Any plans for the weekend?” he asked.

Haruhi turned back around to face him, excitement evident. “There’s a sale at the super market, I thought I’d go to that! I also have to make time to study.”

“Aren’t you studying with them next week?” Kyoya asked, nodding in the direction of the twins.

“Studying with Hikaru and Kaoru isn’t really studying for me. It’s mostly for their benefit.”

“Well, aren’t you a saint.”

Haruhi giggled. “Hardly,” she said, beaming up at him. Kyoya’s heart stuttered. Damn it.

“Well, I should really get going. I promised my dad I’d have dinner ready when he got home.”

Kyoya, in an effort to get himself together, forced himself to put on his mask of practiced indifference. He opened his notebook and began to write once more, not looking up. “See you next week.”

“See you,” Haruhi replied, turning toward the door.

From his spot in the music room, where he had been rooting around in a costume chest, Tamaki stretched his arm out dramatically toward the girl. “Haruhi!” he cried. “You would dare walk out without saying goodbye to your father?”

“Goodbye, Tamaki,” Haruhi groaned, and then disappeared through the door.

Kyoya’s pen stopped moving. He looked back up from his notebook and stared at the spot in which Haruhi had just disappeared, repressing the urge to go after her and ask her another question. A stupid desire, really, and one that would not benefit him in any way in the long run. Kyoya sighed, and looked once more at his notebook. He could continue pretending to work, but his real motivation for doing so had left already. Perhaps he should do the same.

Before he could bid his fellow host club members goodbye, whispered conversations got his attention.

“Takashi,” he heard Honey say, mouth half full of cake. “I guess she didn’t want a snack. We should go I guess-”

“What kind of daughter leaves without trying on the costume her father picked out? Could have gone home already!”

“The toy ran off, might as well go home…”

_Incredible_ , Kyoya thought. It was somehow comforting, though, knowing that they were all, in some form or another, affected by this one girl. Haruhi was good, and sweet, and she had absolutely everyone in the host club, including himself at times, in the palm of her hand, but she had no idea. In his case, that was for the best. He was Kyoya Ootori and she was Haruhi Fujioka, and as she had so simply put it, he wouldn’t benefit from it.

The hosts began to file out the door. In an effort to make it look like his time in the music room wasn’t spent longing after a certain brown eyed host, Kyoya sat down at the table and pulled out his notebook once more.

Tamaki passed by him on his way out the door. “Want me to stay and keep you company?”

Kyoya glanced up at him. “No you go ahead. I won’t be much longer.”

Tamaki bid him goodbye and left. Kyoya continued writing in his notebook, lost in thought. The majority of his life was spent doing things that he could profit from in some way. What was the harm, he figured, in allowing himself to care about a girl whose presence was the reward itself? He would never attempt anything beyond the relationship they had now, but if he happened to feel slightly giddy when her attention was on him, so be it. He felt that a younger Kyoya would not understand this line of thinking, but his younger self did not know Haruhi Fujioka.

Kyoya felt that enough time had passed that he could leave without feeling like an idiot. He glanced down at his notebook, which he had been absentmindedly writing in for the past few minutes, and read the top line. _Nothing to be gained from it. Nothing to be gained from it. Nothing to be gained from it._

He thought of chocolate colored eyes meeting his own, and felt another tug at his heart.

_Nothing at all_ , he thought.

Kyoya turned off the lights and left the music room.


End file.
